(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (“LCD”) is a widely used type of flat panel display (“FPD”), and typically includes two display panels on which field generating electrodes, such as pixel electrodes and a common electrode, are disposed, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two display panels. Voltages are applied to the field generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the liquid crystal layer. The electric field determines orientations of liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer, and controls polarization of incident light to display an image.
The LCD may further include switching elements connected to pixel electrodes, and signal lines such as gate lines and data lines, for example, which control the switching elements and apply voltages to the pixel electrodes.
The LCD typically receives an input image signal from an external source, e.g., a graphics controller, and the input image signal includes luminance information for each pixel, and the luminance information includes grayscale values. Each pixel receives the data voltage corresponding to the luminance information. The data voltage is applied to each pixel, and a difference between the data voltage and the common voltage is a pixel voltage. Each pixel thereby displays a luminance representing a gray level of the image signal based on the pixel voltage. A range of the pixel voltage applied to the liquid crystal display may vary based on a driver.
In a conventional LCD, the driver of the liquid crystal display may be disposed on the display panel as an integrated circuit (“IC”) chip, or disposed on a flexible circuit film and attached to the display panel. However, the IC chip increases the manufacturing cost of the liquid crystal display. Particularly, the cost of the driver of the liquid crystal display is substantially increased as the number of data lines applying the data voltage is increased.